1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of drink mix systems and, more specifically, to an additive mixing system for containers including an additive sealed within a cap that can be selectively added to a beverage by a user. The invention is used for soft drinks, juices, bottled water, alcoholic beverages and other marketed drinks.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Several hundred billion containers of beverages are sold throughout the world every year. Generally, they are limited to only one flavor per container, and the total range of flavors available from bottlers is quite limited when compared with the vast quantities sold and the many millions of consumers involved. Thus far, simple, inexpensive options that allow each consumer the freedom to enhance or multiply flavors for satisfying individual tastes are generally unavailable.
Virtually all conventional beverage bottles now marketed have a narrow threaded neck adapted to mate with a threaded, small diameter cap. Thus, consumers who wish to add their own flavoring to a beverage (e.g., lemon concentrate to bottled water) must remove the cap and insert their additive through the narrow bottle opening—a procedure that can be inefficient, untidy and inconvenient.
One system's approach that has been explored for introducing additives within a closed container is to package the additives within storage cells incorporated into specifically designed caps. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,170,654 and 6,561,232 disclose caps shaped to include storage areas that release additives into a beverage or liquid upon opening of the cap, but do not allow a user to choose a range of additives or the quantity to be added. In other systems (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,270, Japanese Patent Document No. 2003/072822 and World Patent Document No. 2004/060766), an additive also is housed in a storage area of a cap such that a user can mix the additive with a liquid. However, these systems further require specifically constructed containers and caps, thereby increasing manufacturing costs.
As a consequence of the system limitations cited above, there remains a need in the art for an additive mixing system that is inexpensive to manufacture, allows a user to easily introduce several additives to a beverage and that can utilize standard beverage bottle caps.